It was soon time to set off to Jasper, and this route held some hope of spotting a bit of Canadian wildlife. So, we were quite excited and hoped that our patience would at last be rewarded. We set off early in the morning, as we had been told that this was the best time to spot wildlife. It wasn’t too long into our journey before we spotted some vehicles parked up on the right of us with interested people looking out into the wilderness. We pulled up behind them and were soon rewarded with the sighting of a brown grizzly bear in the distance! It wasn’t easy to get good photos from that distance without specialist camera equipment, but we did our best and managed to get a reasonable shot out of all the ones we took. We then set off again and were soon rewarded with a sighting of a young moose that decided to amble across the road – it was turning into a great day!
The weather was beautiful in Jasper, so we decided to book a last-minute cruise across Maligne Lake, which is the largest natural lake in the Canadian Rockies – apparently, the weather hadn’t been as perfect as the day we chose for most of the summer! This was a beautiful trip that lasted for about two hours, taking us right across the 22 km lake and back, and incorporating a stop off by the beautiful Spirit Island. Spirit Island is rumoured to get its name from a modern-day story of Romeo and Juliet, who apparently used the island for their clandestine meetings.
The water is a gorgeous shade of green and gets greener the further south of the lake you get – this being due to the rock flour from the glaciers. We were even lucky enough to spot a bald eagle that decided to take flight from high up in the trees! The scenery on the cruise was, yet again, breathtaking with the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains that reflected beautifully in the water. The boat eventually reached the far side of the lake by Spirit Island and docked there so that we could get off and have a wander round the nature trail and get some great views of the lake and Spirit Island. You can only reach the island by boat, and you aren’t allowed to walk on the island because it is thought to be a sacred place. We got some brilliant photos with it being such a clear day, and the forested area was lovely to walk around. I got such great photos of Spirit Island, too, that I now have a large canvas of the place hanging proudly in my home - along with another great one of the Sydney Opera House. Once back on dry land, we decided it was time for some maple syrup and pancakes in the pancake house, and it was here that we sighted a young deer by the pancake house entrance and a snow goose by the water!
